by: Ashanay Allen, Vickie Savvides, Sophia Tsilerides
After filming our video, we were able to hone our understanding of the painting itself, extract the painter’s ideas from his work, find commonality between his work and many others that share the maritime landscape and conclusively, establish the themes of the painting. The aspect of “Man vs. Nature” depicts the forces that the ship underwent, man losing to the force of the waves. This loss is furthered by the worry exhibited on the faces of the men. In the end, man succumbs to the natural forces and in turn, must plan his next move thoughtfully. Our video captures this constant battle by zeroing in on the expressions of the three men in relation to the damage of the ship as well as the power of the waves. In relation to the other works of this exhibit, a contradiction was noted. While this painting showed men in distress over nature, many of the works instead praised nature and its effects. Additionally, we were able to analyze the strokes of the brush as we examined the imagery, paying attention to the dynamic, bold, colors that enveloped the vast wide water, and the overpowering skyline. From the vivid imagery, we came to the conclusion that Birch’s mission was to capture the ill fate of man at the hands of the natural world.
If we had more time, we would focus in more on the analyses that we did not quite invest more development on, such as a representation of the time period, the painter’s background and views, and the inspiration for the work of art.
Direct Link to your video (for embedding on a class site or saving on your computer)
